Choosing the right curd cheese: A guide to perfect cheesecake
Other cakes may vary according to the holiday or season, but cheesecake remains a staple for every occasion. It's no wonder – it's simple to prepare and offers numerous possibilities for modification. The key to any cheesecake is good quality curd cheese. A poor purchasing decision in this area can severely impact your culinary success.
The best and healthiest choice is plain curd cheese without any additives, which you can grind at home, ideally twice. However, few people have access to such a grinder nowadays. Therefore, ready-made products in tubs are more commonly purchased. Choosing such curd cheese for cheesecake isn't a poor decision – provided you pay attention to the ingredients.
Don't buy this cheese for cheesecake
Cheeses in tubs or the so-called cheesecake curds available in shops can vary greatly in quality. If the label lists only curd cheese, cream, and possibly live bacterial cultures, it is a good and safe product for health. However, plain full-fat or semi-fat curd cheese is a better option as it doesn’t contain cream, which increases the product's calorie content.
Beware of cheeses containing modified starch and guar gum. Such substances are not only unnecessary but can also significantly affect the texture of the baked cake. Cheesecakes with these additives often collapse after baking, and their centre becomes rubbery. Avoid products with added preservatives too – they can alter the colour of the baked cake.
Is low-fat curd cheese good for cheesecake?
Perhaps many will be disappointed, but low-fat curd cheese isn't a good choice. A cheesecake made from it will be dry and lacking in flavour. If you want to make the cake lighter, use full-fat or semi-fat curd cheese, but avoid adding cream to it.
"It's best to use full-fat white cheese and grind it yourself. If you use ready-made cheese for cheesecake, remember that cream or half-and-half, which means fat, is added by the producer to achieve the right consistency. Such cheese has a higher fat content than full-fat white cheese," says Celina Kinicka, a nutritionist at the Damian Medical Center.
Cheesecake with mascarpone or Philadelphia cheese
Renowned online healthy eating advocate Katarzyna Bosacka compares the nutritional values of Philadelphia cheese, mascarpone, and regular semi-fat curd cheese in her TikTok video. The protein content shows differences – in creamy cheeses, there's only 3 grams of protein, while curd cheese contains about six times more, which is 18 grams of protein per 100 grams of cheese. Bosacka also compares the fat content – curd cheese contains 3.5 grams of fat, while Philadelphia cheese has 21 grams and even 40 grams of fat per 100 grams in mascarpone cheese.
Avoid homogenised and spreadable cheeses
In theory, you can make a cake from such cheeses, but it will turn out very sweet and certainly not healthy. These products are highly processed, and homogenised cheeses, in particular, contain a large amount of sugar. Often, the ingredients don't even include a hint of white cheese – instead, there's milk, cream, sugar, starch, glucose-fructose syrup, milk powder, and artificial flavours.
